The ascension of King George V from Royal Silver Jubilee of their majesties King George V and Queen Mary: 6th May, 1935(Clarke (Edwin) Local Collection, Clarke 1936)
“I cannot understand it, after all I am only a very ordinary sort of fellow.“
King George V in response to the cheering crowds at his Silver Jubilee in 1935.
The 6th May 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the ascension to the British throne of King George V. The image shows his coronation in 1911. It is taken from a souvenir booklet that was produced by Newcastle City Council for the King’s Silver Jubilee in 1935.
George was never meant to be King. However, his reign increased the popularity of the monarchy. The British people saw him as a down-to-earth man who sympathised with the hardships faced by the working classes. He was a sailor at heart – he spoke bluntly, talked loudly and enjoyed swearing! He was more common man than Royal and a liberal at heart. During the General Strike of 1926 the King disagreed with suggestions that the strikers were revolutionaries saying, ‘Try living on their wages before you judge them’. The British people felt that he was on their side and it was his very ordinariness that they loved.
George was born on 3rd June 1865. From the age of twelve he served in the Royal Navy. In 1891 his brother, Albert, died of pneumonia shortly after becoming became engaged to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, who was known as May to her family. This left George second in line to the throne and ended his career in the Navy, as he took on more political duties. His grandmother, Queen Victoria, persuaded George to propose to May and they married in 1893.
Although George and May toured the British Empire, George preferred home life where he enjoyed hunting and collecting stamps. They lived in York Cottage at Sandringham, which was small enough so that George could avoid having to entertain! He preferred a quiet life and despised pomp and ceremony.
On 6th May 1910 his father, King Edward VII died, and George ascended to the throne. George’s reign bore witness to a period of upheaval and change, including the First World War, the formation of the first Labour government, strikes and the Depression. During the war, due to anti-German feelings in Britain, George changed the name of the Royal family from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor.
George was disappointed in his heir Prince Edward’s failure to marry and his many love affairs. He prophetically said, ‘After I am dead, the boy will ruin himself within 12 months’. He was however, very fond of his son Albert and doted on his granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth whom he nicknamed Lilibet. He said, ‘I pray to God my eldest son will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne’.
George died on 20th January 1936. A lifetime of heavy smoking had taken its toll. When he was near death his doctor, Lord Dawson, issued a statement announcing, ‘The King’s life is drawing peacefully to a close’. Dawson’s diary later revealed that he aided the King’s death by giving him a lethal injection of cocaine and morphine.
During the lying in state procession part of the Imperial State Crown fell from the coffin. Many saw this as an omen of the coming disastrous reign of Edward VIII, who abdicated before the end of the year, leaving his brother to ascend to the throne as George VI and eventually little Lilibet who became Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, just as George V had hoped.
Illustration of Hadrian’s Wall by W. Collard from Bruce, J.C. The hand-book to the Roman wall: a guide to tourists traversing the barrier of the lower isthmus, 2nd ed. (London: Smith, 1884) (Rare Books, RB913.428 BRU Quarto)
This image of Hadrian’s Wall is by W. Collard and is from a version of the 1884 book, The hand-book to the Roman wall: a guide to tourists traversing the barrier of the lower isthmus by John Collingwood Bruce. The book belonged to John Oxberry who added illustrations and notes to it.
On 13th March 2010, an event entitled ‘Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall’ lit-up the Roman wall from one end to the other to form a line of light from coast to coast in celebration of the landscape and heritage of Northumberland and showing the scale of Hadrian’s Wall.
Hadrian’s Wall was built on the orders of the Roman Emperor Hadrian around AD130 and was operated, manned and maintained for almost 300 years. It is 73-miles long and runs from Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, on the east coast to Bowness-on-Solway, Cumbria, in the west. It is still unclear what purpose lay behind its construction, but it was probably built for defence and in order to define the northern frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain. Much of the length of the wall can be followed on foot and it is the most popular tourist attraction in Northumberland. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
Hadrian’s Wall has been a popular attraction for tourists since the Eighteenth Century. Interest in the site initially came about as a result of a new awareness of the importance of the physical remains of the past and interest in the Classical world. This was partly inspired by the ‘Grand Tour of Europe’, which was undertaken by young men from mainly upper-class families from around 1660 onwards. Most tours followed a standard itinerary, which tended to include Italy and which led to an increased interest in the legacy of classical antiquity. Additionally, following the opening of the Military Road in the 1750s, which followed the line of the wall, the uplands of Northumberland became more accessible to visitors.
During the Nineteenth Century, a number of important developments helped to further increase the popularity of the wall with tourists. In 1832, John Clayton, an antiquarian and town clerk in Newcastle upon Tyne, inherited land containing Chesters Roman Fort. Clayton dedicated his life to funding the excavation, protection, and reconstruction of the remains of the wall and, in 1896, a museum at Chesters was constructed to house the collection of Roman objects that he had discovered during his excavations. A number of ‘learned societies’ were also established during this period devoted to the study of antiquities. These societies increased interest in the wall and introduced it to a wider audience. In 1849, the first pilgrimage travelling the full length of the wall was led by John Collingwood Bruce, and in 1863 he published his Handbook of the Roman Wall, which became a popular tourist guide.
The late Nineteenth Century saw the first public acquisition and display of part of the wall by a public authority and 1927 saw the first portion of the wall to be scheduled as an ancient monument. After the Second World War, the beginnings of mass tourism came to the site as increased car ownership and more leisure time brought further visitors and it became more important than ever to protect the wall. Today, many of the sites along the wall have been acquired for the public and are managed and conserved by county councils, trusts and charities.
The 7th March 2010 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Vice-Admiral Collingwood. This image of him is taken from the 1891 biography, Collingwood, by W.C. Russell, which was illustrated by F. Brangwyn.
Cuthbert Collingwood was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1748 and educated at the city’s Royal Grammar School. At the age of eleven he joined the Royal Navy. In 1777, he met Horatio Nelson, when they both served aboard HMS Lowestoffe. They rose through the ranks of the navy together. Despite their ambition there was never any jealousy between them; they were good friends who had a lot of respect for each other.
Collingwood’s career in the navy took him all over Europe, North America and the West Indies. His visits home to the northeast of England were few and far between. He returned to Newcastle in 1791 and married Sarah Blackett. The couple settled in Morpeth, Northumberland and in the next two years, they had two daughters, Sarah and Mary Patience. However, Collingwood was soon back at sea and in fact, of the forty-nine years he spent in the navy, he spent forty-four of them at sea. As a result he saw his wife and daughters infrequently and they hardly knew him.
Collingwood is most famous for his involvement in the Battle of Trafalgar. The battle, which took place on 21st October 1805, was a sea battle between the British and the combined French and Spanish fleet, during the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was the most crucial British naval victory of the wars. Twenty-seven British ships, led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory, defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships off the south-west coast of Spain, near Cape Trafalgar. Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle. History tends to give all the glory to Nelson, but, in fact, Collingwood and Nelson were equal partners. Collingwood actually fired the first shot and as Nelson lay dying, he took control of the battle and defeated the foreign forces. Thanks to him, the British didn’t lose a single ship at Trafalgar, and the country was saved from possible invasion by Napoleon’s army.
Collingwood was devoted to his country and dedicated his life to protecting it in more than one way. When he was at home in Morpeth he planted acorns whenever he spotted a good place for an oak tree to grow. It took almost 3,000 oak trees to build HMS Victory and he wanted to ensure that the British had enough oak in order to build ships to defend the country in the future.
Despite his time away from home Collingwood remained very fond of his Northumberland roots. Sadly he was never to return to his family after the Battle of Trafalgar. His health was suffering and he appealed to the Admiralty for permission to return to home for several years. On 3rd March 1810, he finally received his release orders and departed from Port Mahon in Minorca on the Ville de Paris. However, he died aboard the ship on the evening of 7th March 1810, before reaching England. He was taken to lie in state in the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, before being buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral, beside the tomb of his friend Nelson.
Designs of coloured ornaments for panels from The Builder’s Magazine: or Monthly Companion for Architects, Carpenters, Masons, Bricklayers, &c.… by A Society of Architects (London: Printed for the Authors; and Sold by F. Newbery …, 1774) (18th Century Collection, 18th C. Coll. 720.942 BUI)
The Builder’s Magazine has been kindly donated to the University Library’s Special Collections by Dr Hendrik (Hentie) Louw of Newcastle University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape.
In the preface, it is explained that “a set of Gentlemen have formed themselves into a Society to promote the improvement of Architecture” and to increase the intellectual output of the profession. Furthermore, they will take a different approach from that of other publications: “Architects, in general, have, in their publications, considered the magnificence of building, rather than its use; it shall be our task to unite both; for Architecture cannot be more grand than it is useful; nor is its dignity more to be considered than its convenience“.
It begins with an alphabetical glossary to building terms (in this volume from ABACUS to BRIDGES:
ABREUVOIR, OR ABREVOIR, in Masonry, signifies the joint or juncture of two stones, or the space or interstice to be filled up with mortar or cement.
ARAEOSTYLE, a term used by Vitruvius, to signify the greatest interval or distance which can be made between columns; which consists of eight modules, or four diameters.
Place BRICKS are made of the same earth, or worse; with a mixture of dirt from the streets; and these are often so very bad they will hardly hold together …
There then follows a series of plates, with explanations, including an elevation for a garden building of the Ionic order, designs for iron work for balconies, a plan for a town house, brick and stone arches, a section of a hospital and the coloured ornamented panels shown here.
John Carter (1748-1817) was educated in Battersea and Kennington. He started out working as an artist for his father but went on to be apprenticed under a surveyor and also to work as a draughtsman and illustrator. In the course of his career he was influenced by such important patrons as John Soane and Horace Walpole. He illustrated The Builder’s Magazine from 1774 until 1786. Commissioned by the Society of Antiquaries, he surveyed a number of ecclesiastical buildings, including Durham Cathedral, for a series of published drawings which attempted to be the first accurate, measured drawings of English religious buildings. He also contributed to the Gentleman’s Magazine which he used as a vehicle for expressing his controversial views on “inappropriate restoration” and the destruction of ancient monuments.
This particular copy of The Builder’s Magazine has the inscription of James Hedley, Meldon, Northumberland April 1st 1842 on the front pastedown and an ink drawing of a bird.
The Quartier Latin. Vol. IV, no. 20, 22; vol. V, no. 27-28; vol. VI, no. 29-30 1898-1899 (London: [Iliffe & Son], 1896-) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 052 QUA)
TheQuartier Latin was produced by Americans residing in the Latin Quarter of Paris, on the Left Bank of the River Seine in the late Nineteenth Century and sold in France, America and Britain. It is now quite a scarce periodical and represents an important period in the history of American art.
Issues typically contain full-page illustrations and Art Nouveau advertisements by such contributors as Ernest Haskell (1876-1925) who had studied under James McNeill Whistler and who specialised in etchings and watercolour posters; William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) who championed Impressionism; F. Luis Mora (1874-1940) who specialised in scenes of American and Spanish life and Henry O. Tanner (1859-1937) who was an African-American known for his portraits and depictions of religious subjects. The periodical also carried poetry and prose.
At the time, France was considered to be the focal point of the world’s artistic community – a locus for artistic training and output. Americans flocked to Paris to study in the academies and to stage exhibitions in the salons.
The March 1898 issue, the cover of which is shown here, includes an advertisement designed by H.G. Fangel for Glendenning’s Beef and Malt Wine, a sample bottle of which was available from Glendenning & Son, Grainger Street, Newcastle.
‘Christmas in the Olden Time’ engraving of Wycoller Hall from Fisher’s drawing room scrap-book, 1836. With poetical illustrations by L. E. L. (London, 1835) (19th Century Collection, 19th C. Coll. 820.5 FIS)
This engraving is one of a series featured in Fisher’s drawing room scrap-book (1835). Captioned Christmas in the Olden Time, the Victorian image portrays a whimsical and romantic view of festive celebrations as they might have taken place at Wycoller Hall, Lancashire, in 1650.
Keeping scrap books was a popular past-time for the middle classes in the nineteenth century. Many types of medium were considered worthy of being kept in scrap books, including newspaper clippings, engraved pictures and “scraps” themselves, which were printed pieces of paper carrying ornate designs in relief, often depicting childhood scenes, flora or fauna.
The mid-nineteenth century saw the publication of ornate leather-bound albums containing pre-printed pages on a variety of themes; some included pockets in which to put photographs or blank pages on which to sketch or paint, as in the case of Fisher’s scrap-book, which contains engravings and poetry interspersed with blank pages.
The poetry in Fisher’s scrap-book was composed by Letitia Elizabeth Landon (often known as “L.E.L.”) who composed her pieces to complement the engraved images which were submitted for inclusion in the publication.
As for Wycoller Hall, the building still stands, but in a ruinous state. Home to the Cunliffe family, it was built in the late sixteenth century but gradually fell into disrepair after being passed to the creditors of Henry Owen Cunliffe in 1818 after his death. The hall is widely believed to have been the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, as the Brontë family lived in the nearby village of Haworth and eye-witness accounts gathered in 1901 from elderly residents of the surrounding Wycoller Village recollected the Brontë sisters visiting the area.
Landon composed a poem entitled Christmas in the Olden Time to accompany this engraving, and she prefaced her poem with the following quotation – allegedly from a Cunliffe family manuscript – describing a festive feast:
“At Wycoller Hall the family usually kept open house the twelve days at Christmas. Their entertainment was a large hall of curious ashlar work, a long table, plenty of furmenty like new milk, in a morning, made of husked wheat, boiled and roasted beef, with a fat goose, and a pudding, with plenty of good beer for dinner.”
Title p[age of Thompson, John Vaughan, A catalogue of plants growing in the vicinity of Berwick upon Tweed (London, 1807) (Grey Tracts Vol. 78)
This decorative title page is the frontispiece to A Catalogue of Plants Growing in the Vicinity of Berwick upon Tweed, by J. V. Thompson, published in 1807.
John Vaughan Thompson (1779-1847) was born and grew up in Berwick. He studied Medicine at Edinburgh from 1797-98, reading anatomy, surgery, midwifery and botany. He compiled the Catalogue during this early period of his life; it displays an extensive knowledge of the plants of his native Berwick and features a small number of striking hand-coloured engravings, apparently drawn by Thompson himself. The quotation used on the title page is from Tweedside, a traditional local song by Robert Crawford.
The Catalogue was not published until 1807. In the mean time, from 1799 onwards, Thompson had begun an adventurous career as an army surgeon, travelling to Guiana, the West Indies, Mauritius and Madagascar, all the while keeping up his botanical studies and also developing a keen interest in the fields of natural history and marine biology.
In 1816 he published a second catalogue: A Catalogue of the Exotic Plants Cultivated in the Mauritius, echoing his work on the flora of Berwick – a place which we might imagine seemed a world away as he conducted his researches and compiled his lists in those tropical climes.
Over the years Thompson also made several fundamental contributions to natural history and marine biology, including the description of a new species of pouched rat on Trinidad and his revolutionary re-evaluation of barnacles as crustacea rather than molluscs, declared by Charles Darwin to have been “a capital discovery”.
Thompson died in Sydney, Australia, a few years after retiring from his last professional post as Medical Officer in charge of the convict settlements of New South Wales.
Page showing the Shepherds calendar from Catholic Church. Enchiridion p[re]clare ecclesie Sarum: deuotissimis precationibus, ac venutissimis imaginib[us] et ijs quidem non paucis refertum. (Parisijs: Ex officina libraria vidue spectabilis viri Thielmanni Keruer, 1528) (Robinson Collection, Robinson 325)
This Catholic Book of Hours dates from 1528. It is part of the Robinson Collection – bequeathed in 1998 by Marjorie Robinson, widow of antiquarian bookseller, Philip.
A book of hours is a primer, or horae, containing devotions and prayers for private use, in imitation of the prayer-life of ecclesiastics. Often, the Hours of the Virgin are attached to the Psalter and liturgical calendars, suffrages and a litany of the saints may also be appended.
The book of hours was in general use into the Sixteenth Century. This one, like most, is beautifully illuminated. It is a small object – a duodecimo -, on vellum and with the remnants of a brown cloth binding, with blue velvet spine, a metal centrepiece, four metal cornerpieces, an ornamental metal clasp and gilt edges.
The Spence Watson/Weiss Archive consists, for the most part, of letters they received, which are evidence of their involvement in both local and national matters of politics, education and society. They were visited by politicians, reformers, artists, writers and diplomats.
Included amongst the papers are a box of photographs of well-known figures such as William Morris, David Lloyd George and Myles Birket Foster. The images featured below are part of that collection and have been selected as representing some of the pioneers of the Nineteenth Century.
Sir John Herschel (1792-1871)
Sir John Herschel [English Mathematician and Astronomer] (Spence Watson/Weiss Archive, SW/11/18)
Herschel began his career as a distinguished mathematician who also worked in the fields of chemistry, botany and, like his father Sir William Herschel, he applied himself in the field of astronomy. In 1834, surveying the sky from the Cape of Good Hope, he mapped and catalogued the southern skies, discovered thousands of new celestial objects, discovered 525 nebulae and clusters and named seven of Saturn’s satellites (Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan and Iapetus) and four moons of Uranus (Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon).
Furthermore, he wrote many papers on such subjects as meteorology and physical geography. However, he actually made a large impact in the field of photography: one of the original researchers of celestial photography not only did he make significant improvements to photographic processes, discovering the cyanotype (blueprint) process in 1842, but he went on to research photo-active chemicals and the wave theory of light. He coined the term photography and was the first to apply negative and positive to it.
His son, Alexander, would become Professor of Physics at Armstrong College (now Newcastle University) in 1871 where he continued pioneering work in meteor spectroscopy.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Charles Darwin [English Naturalist] (Spence Watson/Weiss Archive, SW/11/6)
Darwin’s is, even today, a household name – made famous by his theory of evolution which completely revolutionised our approach to the natural world. Against the tide of belief in the biblical description of a world created by God, Darwin turned instead to Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology (1830) which argued that the Earth’s geological history and the progressive development of life could be explained as gradual changes and that fossils were evidence that animals had lived millions of years ago.
Darwin’s scientific expedition on board the HMS Beagle (1831-35) impressed upon him the rich variety of animal life and geological features and he spent the next twenty years solving the question of how animals evolve. In 1859 he published his ground-breaking On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, a first edition of which is held in the Pybus Collection. The Church, seeing the prevailing orthodoxy threatened, attacked Darwin and the idea that homo sapiens could have evolved from apes caused a backlash with satirists of the day lampooning Darwin in simian caricatures.
Dr. Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930)
Dr Fridtjof Nansen [Norwegian Polar Explorer] (Spence Watson/Weiss Archive, SW/11/33)
Nansen was a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate whose devotion to humanitarian causes such as refugees, prisoners of war and famine victims had saved many lives after World War I. First and foremost he was a scientist and explorer. In 1888 he crossed the Greenland icecap by ski and man-hauled sledge during which expedition he and his team of six collected scientific and meteorological data.
However, he became one of the pioneers of oceanography after sailing from Christiania (Oslo) to the New Siberian Islands on board the Fram in 1893. The boat froze into the ice and drifted until it was able to sail south in August 1897, following a strong east-west current that Nansen had argued must flow from Siberia towards the North Pole and Greenland. Although Nansen had not stayed with the boat, having instead made an unsuccessful bid for the Pole, his team collected information about currents, winds and temperatures and proved that there was no land near the Pole on the Eurasian side, but an ice-covered ocean. From this point, Nansen focused his research on oceanography, specifically compiling data from the Norwegian Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
The Spence Watson/Weiss Archive contains several letters from Nansen to Robert Spence Watson, and the extract given below complements the photograph of him on skis.
“… now I am again back in my dear country and am happy, one of the first days my wife and I will take to our ‘ski’ and go up in the mountains to live their [sic] for some time I must get some pure Norwegian mountain-air into my lungs again. It is a charming life to be in the mountains in the winter to feel oneself like a bird as one rushes over the snowfields undisturbed by human foot and then when the night comes to sleep in the snow with the sky as a tent. Oh you are so free, we both enjoy it immensely.”
Letter to Robert Spence Watson: Lysaker, 7 March 1892 (SW/1/13/3)
Professor Richard Owen (1804-1892)
Sir Richard Owen [Biologist and Palaeontologist] (Spence Watson/Weiss Archive, SW/11/35)
Owen, an anatomist and palaeontologist, had a long and distinguished career in museums and created a name for himself as a controversial but brilliant scientist. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, designed the life-sized dinosaur exhibits for the Great Exhibition (1851) and his Hunterian Lectures were well-attended but his successful campaign for a dedicated natural history museum, thereby founding the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, was one of his greatest achievements.
Furthermore, although Owen rejected Darwin’s theory of evolution, being convinced of the immutability of species, he nevertheless published notable works on fossils and it was he who, building on the work of others, first classified dinosaurs and coined the term. (Owen came to revise his ideas on transmutation but maintained his belief in a divinely-created species model.)
Goldwin Smith (1823-1910)
Goldwin Smith [Historian and Journalist] (Spence Watson/Weiss Archive, SW/11/45)
Smith’s roles were many and varied: historian, journalist, poet and translator to list a few. He was well-known as a writer on religious and political issues and was an early advocate of colonial emancipation, House of Lords reform and the separation of Church and State.
However, it is his work as a university reformer which stands out. Smith had demanded a Royal Commission of inquiry into the administration of Oxford University and its report (1852) suggested that religious tests should be relaxed, and that a teaching professoriate should be created. He also sat on the Popular Education Commission of 1858, chaired by the Duke of Newcastle. In his pamphlet, The Reorganization of the University of Oxford (1868), his recommendations included the abolition of celibacy as a condition of the tenure of fellowships and that the individual colleges merge for lecturing.
That same year, he left England for the professorship of English and Constitutional History at Cornell University – the institution to which he would later gift his private library and a $14, 000 endowment. He moved to Toronto in 1871 (where he lived out his remaining years). Here he sat on the Council of Public Instruction and wrote about the place and function of universities in Canada.
Throughout his life he argued that men of all classes should be afforded the opportunity of university education, that universities should be free from political domination and called for the raising of standards and the establishment of provincial universities.
Illustration of reaping from Hardy, J., Harvest Customs in Northumberland , 1844 (White (Robert) Collection, W942.82 HAR)
In the agricultural calendar, September is the time for reaping:
September, welcome! Month of genial mood, To hearts that crush’d in life’s tumultuous press, Pant for the rural paths of peacefulness, On which the world’s cold gaze may not intrude. The calm that wraps the earth, and sky, and sea, Permits the mind its own dear fancies bright; And, as in lone seclusion of the night, The past revives and glads our privacy. What jovial train breaks on us as we muse? The reaper bands ‘mid fields of bending grain, Where mirth’s loud shout, sly joke, and winning strain, The light of joy, through deep stirr’d hearts diffuse. Blest scenes of youth! And happy harvest hours! Life has no equal charms – no bliss like yours. – MS.
The above image is a detail from a larger illustration depicting the bread-making process all the way through the cycle from ploughing the fields to delivering loaves (seen below).
The Countryside, Hardy, J., Harvest Customs in Northumberland , 1844 (White (Robert) Collection, W942.82 HAR)
The stages shown here are: ploughing, sowing, hoeing, reaping, binding the sheaves, gleaning (i.e. gathering the corn which has been left in the field after reaping), threshing, winnowing (i.e. separating the chaff from the grain), flour mills, kneading the dough, baking and delivering bread.
The date of this illustration, and the period which it depicts, are unknown, but we can see that the images represent traditional, manual farming methods, with grain being flailed by hand rather than by threshing machine. The early Nineteenth Century was a period of great agricultural transformation: high-yielding crops such as wheat and barley were introduced and pasture was replaced with arable land. Agriculture became increasingly industrialised which brought about changes in rural working conditions, with only 22% of the workforce being employed in agriculture in the 1850s. The use of windmills, too, began a slow decline from the early Nineteenth Century onwards, in the wake of the development of steam power.
As for bread, because no corn had been imported during the Napoleonic Wars, Britain’s landowners had increased their wheat production and enjoyed good profits which they lobbied Parliament to protect when war ended in 1815. The Corn Laws were passed which legislated that corn could only be imported when the domestic price was 80 shillings per quarter. Bread prices had been high, especially after the terrible harvest of 1816, and the Corn Laws kept bread prices artificially high – which led to unemployment and economic decline. The laws were reformed in 1828 when a sliding scale was adopted but this was to have a negligible effect. In 1846, the Corn Laws were repealed under Robert Peel.
It seems likely that the bucolic scenes featured here hark back to a time before these changes began to take place.
